La lecture (Reading Woman)

This sensual reflection of love and lust depicts a nude Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso’s much younger  lover and muse asleep in an armchair with a book on her lap. When Picasso and Marie-Thérèse first met, their relationship had to be kept secret in fear of Picasso’s wife, the ballerina Olga Khokhlova, finding out, so his earliest representations of Marie-Thérèse are subtly in the background of works. La Lecture is the first time that she appeared as the subject of Picasso’s work, and when it was exhibited at a Picasso retrospective, Olga found out that Picasso was in love with another woman which led to the dissolution of their marriage.
SKU: 6977
Creator: Pablo Picasso
Date: 1932
Original Medium: oil on Canvas
Original Size: 44 7/8 x 57 1/2 in
Location: Musée National Picasso
© Succession Picasso 2010